A woman holds Bill Clinton's book, hoping for an autograph. Former President Bill Clinton spoke about health care and the war at KCBS' 3rd Annual Health Fair at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on 4/14/07. Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

A woman holds Bill Clinton's book, hoping for an autograph. Former...

Image 2 of 3

Former President Bill Clinton spoke about health care and the war at KCBS' 3rd Annual Health Fair at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on 4/14/07. Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

Former President Bill Clinton spoke about health care and the war...

Image 3 of 3

Former President Bill Clinton spent about an hour talking with people, shaking hands and signing autographs after he spoke about health care and the war at KCBS' 3rd Annual Health Fair at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on 4/14/07. Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle

2007-04-14 16:23:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The dire state of the nation's health care system is threatening the country's well-being, former President Bill Clinton told a receptive crowd in San Francisco on Saturday.

"Our health care system is immoral because it doesn't provide health care to everybody," said Clinton, the keynote speaker at KCBS Health Etc., a daylong symposium at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. "It's wildly uneconomical. We pay more than everybody else in the world for less."

"It is sowing the seeds of its own destruction," said Clinton, who said health care is one of the top three problems the country faces, along with economic inequality and energy dependence.

Clinton was warmly received by the crowd, which leapt to its feet in the first of three standing ovations before he began speaking.

"I jump at any chance to come back to San Francisco. You've been very good to me," he said.

Like a patient professor trying to break down a complex issue for his students, Clinton used a plethora of statistics, and a touch of humor, in his indictment of the current state of American health care.

He said the United States spends 16 percent its national income on health care, compared with 11 percent in Canada and Switzerland, the countries with the next highest spending. That gap represents $800 billion a year, he said.

Yet the United States ranks only 37th in the world in overall health care, insures fewer of its citizens and pays more for its drugs, Clinton said.

Nearly a third of U.S. health care spending goes to administrative costs, the highest in the world, he said.

Clinton, who has spent much of his post-presidential years working to address the worldwide AIDS epidemic, said American taxpayers spend $10,000 a year for AIDS treatments that cost $3,500 in other countries.

He mentioned the pharmaceutical industry's opposition to importing cheaper, generic drugs from Canada.

He said the industry wants people to believe that "if you take it when it crosses the border, you will immediately drop dead. It's the same medicine. (Canadians) don't drop dead," he said to laughter. "They've developed generic immunity, an immunity to cheap drugs."

Clinton does not deny that some Americans have access to excellent health care, saying the success of his 2004 emergency quadruple heart bypass surgery makes him "a walking miracle."

But he said his case is also an example that not enough is being done on the prevention side.

"We are great about treating sickness, but we are lousy at keeping people well," said Clinton, who also is working on the issue of childhood obesity. "We are running the risk of raising the first generation of children to live shorter lives than their parents."

Clinton said he hasn't totally sworn off McDonalds but has been only twice in the past six years, on what he jokingly referred to as "childhood obesity field trips." Worried about his cholesterol, he now avoids hamburgers but likes "those little fried pies."

Clinton -- whose wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, is seeking the Democratic nomination for president -- didn't advocate a solution to the health-care crisis but said there are several options.

While health care was the topic of the day, Clinton couldn't resist a lengthy answer when asked about Iraq by KCBS reporter Mike Sugerman, refusing to wrap up when Sugerman tried to cut him off.

"You asked me about this. You're going to get an answer," Clinton said testily.

He said the United States shouldn't withdraw immediately but should cease combat operations and implement a "substantial drawdown of American troops" this year.

Following his speech, Clinton stepped down from the stage and spent more than an hour signing autographs and taking pictures with people while others stood on their chairs, craning for a glimpse.

"He's always amazing because he has such a depth of knowledge on every issue he's asked," said Santa Cruz resident Helen Isherwood, who paid $75 for her second-row seat. "We so need a political hero, and he's it for the Bay Area."